March Moss / 17 January 2025 / Categories: Opinions, Bodies & Groups, Authorities and Justice

Speed Traps and The Police Correspondence That Follows

Are you afraid of the system?

No one likes getting a ticket, especially an advanced driver like me.

As a senior midwife I do about 20,000 miles a year and have managed to get three speeding tickets in 5 years, all in exactly the same location and always around 34 or 35 miles per hour in a thirty zone. My particular speed trap is in Leicestershire, very close to the M1 motorway junction 20 on a country stretch.

I’ve already embarrassingly done a couple of speed awareness courses to mitigate my punishment only this time it’s points and big fine because I am just outside the time window to do another course.

Not to mention my friends and family in complete shock as they rib me for being if not the slowest driver in the UK certainly a cautious and considered driver.

I am not adverse to driving penalties per se as many accidents and deaths are preventable if drivers could be more conscious when behind the wheel, but I also wonder what are the chances of the same car with the same driver being repeatedly caught in the same spot 3 or 4 miles an hour over the limit. And then I discover it’s not one spot or another one camera but an average speed check between two points. Who knew?

Whether the Police speed cameras are strategically placed to raise revenue for an underfunded over stretched force, or genuinely preventing accidents first is a difficult question to ask.

I was slightly concerned when I received the first notification from Leicestershire police of my impending prosecution, and before I could complete it a couple of days later another one dropped on the mat.

It did make me gulp and think why did I have two notices of impending prosecution so close together. I now understand you get three automatically generated.

The two letters so closely one after the other did make me act.

I immediately completed the paperwork required, maybe the objective and got it in the post. If it was strategic it worked.

I don’t know why but I snapped a cautionary photograph as proof of posting, time and date stamped just in case.

And lo and behold I needed it because before my returned paperwork was even acknowledged there was another letter threatening prosecution on my mat. I now know number three.

I’ve emailed the police telling them I have done what was required. I have not had a response yet or any further correspondence.

I would love to believe the organisation is honest, fair and trustworthy but I think it’s better to highlight how these systems funded by us the taxpayer can be extremely and unnecessarily unnerving.

It does make me wonder is this the state they want everyone in, half scared to death, when the crime whilst significant and important doesn’t warrant such a strong arm maybe.